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Brian Finke | Dear Dave Magazine

From Dear Dave

THE PHOTOGRAPHER BRIAN FINKE spent two years flying around the world—without any real sense of destination—logging hundreds of thousands of miles to document the lives of on- and off-duty international flight attendants. That he was able to do so in a security delay-lost baggage-lack of service-post-9/11 world says as much about his ambitions as a documentarian as it does about his patience and charm as a human being.

A previous body of work, collected in significant part in the book 2-4-6-8 (Umbrage Editions), found Finke trailing exuberant squads of American cheerleaders and football players—a project for which he no doubt spent a lot of time on buses. In the flight attendants, the photographer has discovered another nomadic tribe, distinguished by its own language, mannerisms, and uniforms. But what struck Finke most were not the differences, but rather the similarities between these seemingly disparate groups—in their efforts to maintain the front of group camaraderie, in their performance of choreographed activities, in their codes of appearance.